• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2008

Purpose: National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS) criteria and the Canadian Cervical Spine rule (CCR) are commonly used in cervical trauma patients to determine whether a plain cervical X-ray should be performed. However, plain cervical X-rays are so inaccurate that cervical spine computed tomography (CT) is often considered as a screening test. We studied the usefulness of the NEXUS criteria and the CCR for determining the need for a CT evaluation in the emergency department (ED). Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted from January 2007 to March 2008. Plain X-ray and CT scans of the cervical spine were performed on blunt trauma patients with neck pain. The relevancy of CT was examined using the NEXUS criteria and the CCR. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predicted value, and negative predicted value analyses were performed to diagnose the cervical spine injury. Results: During the study period, 284 patients were enrolled in this study. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predicted value, and negative predicted value of the NEXUS criteria were 87.5%, 1.1%, 5.0%, and 60.0% respectively, while those of the CCR were 87.5%, 8.2%, 5.3%, and 91.6%. There were two missed fracture cases when the NEXUS criteria and the CCR were applied independently, however, no cases were missed when both were applied. Conclusion: This study suggests the NEXUS and the CCR in combination can be used as a guide to CT evaluation for cervical spine injury in the ED.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.184-196
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• 2019

This study aims to extract a 3D image of micro-cracks generated by hydraulic fracturing tests, using the deep learning method and X-ray computed tomography images. The pixel-level cracks are difficult to be detected via conventional image processing methods, such as global thresholding, canny edge detection, and the region growing method. Thus, the convolutional neural network-based encoder-decoder network is adapted to extract and analyze the micro-crack quantitatively. The number of training data can be acquired by dividing, rotating, and flipping images and the optimum combination for the image augmentation method is verified. Application of the optimal image augmentation method shows enhanced performance for not only the validation dataset but also the test dataset. In addition, the influence of the original number of training data to the performance of the deep learning-based neural network is confirmed, and it leads to succeed the pixel-level crack detection.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.353-362
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• 2014

Pore structures in porous rock play an important role in hydraulic & mechanical behaviour of rock. Porosity, size distribution and orientation of pores represent the characteristics of pore structures of porous rock. While effective porosity can be measured easily by conventional experiment, pore size distribution is hard to be quantified due to the lack of corresponding experiment. We assessed pore size distribution of Berea sandstone using X-ray CT image based analysis combined with associated images processing, i.e., image filtering, binarization and skeletonization subsequently followed by the assessment of local thickness and star chord length. The aim of this study is to propose a new and effective way to evaluate pore structures of porous rock using X-ray CT based analysis for pore size distribution.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.151-159
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• 2014

Computed tomography (CT) is one of the most widely used medical imaging modality. However, substantial x-ray dose exposed to the human subject during the CT scan is a great concern. Region-of-interest (ROI) CT is considered to be a possible solution for its potential to reduce the x-ray dose to the human subject. In most of ROI-CT scans, the ROI is set to a circular shape whose diameter is often considerably smaller than the full field-of-view (FOV). However, an arbitrarily shaped ROI is very desirable to reduce the x-ray dose more than the circularly shaped ROI can do. We propose a new method to make a non-circular convex-shaped ROI along with the image reconstruction method. To make a ROI with an arbitrary convex shape, dynamic collimations are necessary to minimize the x-ray dose at each angle of view. In addition to the dynamic collimation, we get the ROI projection data with slightly lower sampling rate in the view direction to further reduce the x-ray dose. We reconstruct images from the ROI projection data in the compressed sensing (CS) framework assisted by the exterior projection data acquired from the pilot scan to set the ROI. To validate the proposed method, we used the experimental micro-CT projection data after truncating them to simulate the dynamic collimation. The reconstructed ROI images showed little errors as compared to the images reconstructed from the full-FOV scan data as well as little artifacts inside the ROI. We expect the proposed method can significantly reduce the x-ray dose in CT scans if the dynamic collimation is realized in real CT machines.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.45-55
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• 2020

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is very useful for the quantitative evaluation of internal structures, particularly defects in rock samples, such as pores and fractures. In situ CT allows 3D imaging of a sample subjected to various external treatments such as loading and therefore enables observation of changes that occur during the loading process. We reviewed state-of-the-art of in situ CT applications for geomaterials. Two triaxial cells made using relatively low density but high strength materials were developed aimed at in situ CT scanning during hydro-mechanical laboratory testing of rocks. Preliminary results for in situ CT imaging of granite and sandstone samples with diameters ranging from 25 mm to 50 mm show a resolution range of 34~105 ㎛ per pixel pitch, indicating the feasibility of in situ CT observations for internal structural changes in rocks at the micrometer scale. Potassium iodide solution was found to improve the image contrast, and can be used as an injection fluid for hydro-mechanical testing combined with in situ CT scanning.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.142-147
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• 2009

Purpose: Early diagnosis and management of therapeutic interventions are very important in chest trauma. Conventional chest X-rays (CXR) and computed tomography (CT) are the diagnostic tools that can be quickly implemented for chest trauma patients in the emergency department. In this study, the usefulness of the CT as a diagnostic measurement was examined by analyzing the ability to detect thoracic injuries in trauma patients who had visited the emergency department and undergone CXR and CT. Methods: This study involved 84 patients who had visited the emergency department due to chest trauma and who had undergone both CXR and CT during their diagnostic process. The patients' characteristics and early vital signs were examined through a retrospective analysis of their medical records, and the CXR and the CT saved in the Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) were examined by a radiologist and an emergency physician to verify whether or not a lesion was present. Results: Pneumothoraxes, hemothoraxes, pneumomediastina, pulmonary lacerations, rib fractures, vertebral fractures, chest wall contusions, and subcutaneous emphysema were prevalently found in a statistically meaningful way (p<0.05) on the CT. Even though their statistical significance couldn' be verified, other disorders, including aortic injury, were more prevalently found by CT than by CXR. Conclusion: CT implemented for chest trauma patients visiting the emergency department allowed disorders that couldn' be found on CXR to be verified, which helped us to could accurately evaluate patients.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.7-8
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.324.2-324
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• 2001

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.864-866
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• 2021

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 2014

Purpose: To assess the influence of anatomic location on the relationship between computed tomography (CT) number and X-ray attenuation in limited and medium field-of-view (FOV) scans. Materials and Methods: Tubes containing solutions with different concentrations of $K_2HPO_4$ were placed in the tooth sockets of a human head phantom. Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans were acquired, and CT numbers of the $K_2HPO_4$ solutions were measured. The relationship between CT number and $K_2HPO_4$ concentration was examined by linear regression analyses. Then, the variation in CT number according to anatomic location was examined. Results: The relationship between $K_2HPO_4$ concentration and CT number was strongly linear. The slopes of the linear regressions for the limited FOVs were almost 2-fold lower than those for the medium FOVs. The absolute CT number differed between imaging protocols and anatomic locations. Conclusion: There is a strong linear relationship between X-ray attenuation and CT number. The specific imaging protocol and anatomic location of the object strongly influence this relationship.